Flash Photography Workshops Erlanger KY

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10 Tips for Better Night Photography

10 Tips For Better Night Photography

The secrets to getting great shots at night are revealed

Text And Photography By Rob Sheppard

Night photography is one of those aspects of photography that always gets attention. People love to see night scenes—that mysterious mix of ambient light and city lights. The challenge is to compose them well. Night photos used to be difficult to capture with film (though film still shines for superlong night exposures) because of exposure problems. Night exposures can be hard enough to deal with anyway, but in addition, film had something called reciprocity failure. This meant that film lost sensitivity with long exposures.

You always had to compensate for this reciprocity failure by increasing exposure by two, three or even four times the expected exposure from a meter reading. You'd end up doing 10-second, 20-second and 40-second bracketed shots, and even then, hope for the best.

Digital changes all that. Reciprocity failure is no longer an issue. Plus, you can now use your histogram and LCD review to be sure you're getting the photo you expect. Exposure is still a challenge because of the high contrast of night, but it's now more manageable.

Digital cameras actually make night photography a lot of fun. You can experiment with color by changing white balance, trying different exposures, adding flash and so on, then see the results instantly on the LCD. Let's look at 10 tips to make your night photography more effective.

1. Start With Auto Exposure Most digital cameras can handle bright night scenes that have a lot of lights, such as a city street or a lit building. The challenge, though, is that the bright lights and large areas of black may (or may not) overinfluence your meter—this can be hard to predict. It's worth starting with the auto exposure, then making adjustments to it after seeing how conditions are affecting your exposure. Check your histogram.

2. Watch Your Histogram Your histogram will give you a lot of good information about the scene. Often, bright lights will make the camera underexpose the scene, pushing the histogram to the left. That can result in weaker colors and tonalities, plus a whole lot more noise. Having some bright lights clip on the right side of the histogram (meaning their brightness levels are cut off and only pure white can be recorded) is generally not a problem at night, as long as that extra exposure reveals something worth seeing.

3. Choose Your White Balance Auto white balance can be random at night, giving you inconsistent results. I suggest you try some specific white-balance presets, so you can gain consistent, repeatable results that you like. This will help when you process the image in your computer, too, even if you shoot RAW.

The obvious choice, Tungsten, can give an effective night look, but it isn't automatically the best. Sometimes Daylight offers an attractive warm feeling to night lights. Or, if you need some specific ...

Effective Flash

Effective Flash

Five ways to improve your flash photography

Text And Photography By Tom Bol

I'll be the first to admit, old-school flash photography intimidated me. Just the thought of figuring out guide numbers and flash charts put me in a cold sweat. If I was in a spontaneous shooting situation, say, photographing a colorful market, I just put my flash away and shot using available light. This resulted in a lot of mediocre photographs.

Things have changed with the current smart TTL flashes on the market, and I'm happy to report flash intimidation is gone forever! No more confusing charts—just let the flash calculate output with a little guidance from you. These new flashes are more intuitive, powerful and accurate.

Flash photography gives photographers a valuable tool in creating dynamic images. Using flash can often transform a nice image into a stunning one. Here are some ways to improve your photos using flash.

Reduce Shadows One of the best advantages of using flash is reducing shadows. Living in Colorado, we get 300 days of sunshine a year, and I often find myself shooting in harsh sunlight. This overhead light creates shadows on faces, under hats, around flowers and in many places I don't want shadows.

Most TTL flashes have a balanced fill-flash setting designed specifically to reduce shadows in contrasty situations. By setting your flash to the balanced fill-flash mode, the flash output won't overpower the ambient exposure. Instead, the flash will pop just enough light to reduce shadows in conjunction with the camera exposing the scene properly. If you check your LCD after the shot and your flash looks too hot, simply dial the output down. I often use balanced fill-flash with the output dialed down around one stop.

Create Catchlights When teaching photo workshops, I see lots of good wildlife images that can be made better by adding a simple catchlight in the animal's eyes. Imagine that great bison image from Yellowstone; if you don't have catchlights in those eyes, the image won't pop. Lack of catchlights happens on overcast days or if the subject isn't angled properly to the sun.

Eyes have a moist surface that reflects light from a long distance away. This works well for TTL flash. Even though the animal may be a long way off, simply popping your flash adds a catchlight in the animal's eyes even though the flash doesn't illuminate the animal's body. If your subject is really far away, try adding a flash extender for further reach. This technique applies equally to portraiture.

Improve Color Once I had an assignment to do a portrait of an environmentalist in Juneau, Alaska. Juneau is located in a rain forest, so I knew my chances of shooting in the rain were good. Sure enough, the day of the shoot it was raining, with low clouds and fog. I tried some images without flash, and they looked terrible. Since it was raining too hard to shoot with studio strobes, I put on m...

Flash Basics

Use flash effectively to enhance the light

Effects of different flash positions (left to right): 1. On-camera flash produces harsh light and shadow, with a flat look to the face. 2. Off-camera flash creates dimensional light with a strong shadow. 3. Off-camera flash, bounced with a white reflector from the right, produces soft, even light and shadows. 4. Off-camera flash bounced off of a white ceiling above creates a natural-looking light.

Light is basic to photography, obviously. When the light isn’t at its best, it’s a serious challenge. Poor light consistently makes potentially good photos go bad. One strategy for success is to use flash. Yet, using flash can be challenging, as well. It can be bold and beautiful, but also harsh and unappealing.

There are some things you can do to make your flash work more in your favor, so you get pictures more often on the bold and beautiful side than the other. This article will explore some tips that can point you in the right direction to do exactly that.

Turn On Your Built-In Flash During the Day When the sun is out, and the shadows are harsh, turn on that flash! When the light is dull from heavy clouds (and even rain), turn on that flash!

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While your camera’s flash isn’t very strong, it does work well as long as you’re not too far from your subject. Most cameras have a setting that will allow your camera to balance the flash with the existing light. On many cameras, this is in aperture priority (check your manual). You can tell when the camera is doing this if you notice the shutter speed changing as the light changes, even with the flash on—otherwise, your camera automatically will set a fast flash-sync speed only.

With harsh sunlight, this daylight fill-flash brightens shadows and makes dark shadows, such as those under hat brims, come to life. If the flash is too strong, try using the flash exposure compensation to reduce the flash output.

When the light is dull, use the flash to brighten colors and make your subject stand out from the background. The effect will vary depending on how strong the flash is compared to the light of the day. A quick way to get some drama is to go to manual exposure, set the camera to slightly underexpose based on your meter reading, then use the flash normally. This will give properly exposed flash light on your subject while the surroundings are darker.

Use the Ceiling for More Natural Flash One of the challenges that flash has is that it can look harsh indoors. This is because the light is small in size (which makes for contrasty shadows) and is close to the camera lens when the flash is on the camera (which can make the light less than flattering).

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With an accessory flash that allows the flash head to tilt to the ceiling, you can bounce light indirectly to yo...

Studio lighting is used to change the atmosphere of a place. Read through the following articles to learn more about studio lighting and find local companies and providers who can help you find what you’re looking for.